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by Mypokemonpride
Summary: A dedication to Hashiri Nio, our lovable baby, a one-shot on my idea of her past before Class Black and Meichi Yuri


Mirror,_mirror, please tell me something, whisper to me, who is the happiest of them all?_

Nio presses her palms onto the glass, hands shaking, heart breaking. Cold lips quiver with the weight of 1000 shattered dreams. She looks up and stares into…herself? No. Someone else, someone ugly.

The girl who stands before Nio is trapped like a caged monster. Her eyes are feverish, dead and abandoned. There is blackness too. It molds her, distorts her. She is painted on a fractured canvas. Her world is different than Nio's, a world where truths are made into lies. But, wouldn't that mean…

Nio didn't know. She only knew that it _hurt_. Thoughts thrash against her brain, staining her vision red. A deep, dark sensation pierces her flesh and soul. It leaves a giant, gaping hole inside her chest. She felt herself slipping through the cracks. Falling, falling, and falling into the warm, familiar embrace of darkness.

_Answer me. I can't. What do you mean you can't? I need an answer. No. Why? Because I don't care about you._

Nio's eyes widen and in a fit of emotions that no one ever taught her to recognize, she slams a fist into the center of the mirror. Reality hazes in and out, bends and twist. She grits her teeth and sends her knuckles flying into the illusion before her again. Once, twice, three times, the shards descend in dyed snowflakes.

Her knees buckle together and she grabs the edge of the sink as if she were grasping onto the last remains of sanity. She's shocked, confused, something wet is rolling down her cheeks. Clear and burning, tracing lines. More starts to flow like blood pouring from cut wrists. They form droplets at her chin and crash onto the surface.

Crumbling to the ground, Nio props her legs up and gazes at her trembling hands, sniffling and blinking away whatever this strange liquid was. _They're covered in blood…it hurts, I like it, I don't like it._ A shark-ish grin expands on her mouth and falters just as quickly.

What's this sinking feeling? Nio wants it to go away; she couldn't take it anymore, this… not knowing business. It made her feel stupid, weak, and worthless, like trash. She is all of those things. Nio knows she is. No one cared for her. No one loved her. There had been nothing for her in the past and there will never be anything for her in the present or the future. She wore loneliness every day.

She is a devil, a degenerate; she didn't deserve to have a name, only humans possessed those.

A nameless beast.

Tears well in Nio's eyes. She sinks her teeth into her lips, trying desperately to stop the screams hanging on the edge of her tongue. Yet, the longer she sat there, alone in the silence, the more she found herself listening to temptation.

Nio hollers, crying out for the first time everything that she'd collected and stored within her. What comes from her throat is raw, ear-deafening, and pure. Nio sucks in hasty breaths of air and ogles at the wall across her. Tucking her knees into her chest, she wraps her arms around her legs and buries her head into her ragged, dirty jeans.

She stays in that position for what felt like an eternity. Eventually her weeping dwindled. Her face is a sobbing mess, red as a strawberry. She'd never revealed so much about herself before, but no one is here except for her and the mocking shadows.

She didn't want to lift her head and open her eyelids, Nio didn't belong in light, this is her home, and it's always been her home. Where she couldn't see anyone and they couldn't see her.

Nio wished to die. To leave this place and go somewhere that no other being had seen before.

Voices. Outside.

"She's in that room, are you sure you don't want anyone else? That girl—she's a monster, you know. There are rumors that she killed her own parents all because she hated her name or something like that. It was never proven, but, I'd be cautious if I were you."

_Akimitsu…who is she talking to?_ Nio wondered, a trail of snot running onto her upper lip.

"Yes, it has to be her." The voice belongs to a female, soft, sweet, enticing.

_I don't want anyone to come in here, they can't, they can't see me…_

Akimitsu said something inaudible. She heard the door creaking.

_Maybe if I keep quiet, she'll leave._

Footsteps. Coming close. Closer. The smell of life, the sweet aroma of honey and flowers drifted into the bathroom, masking the scent of blood.

The woman was right over her. Nio didn't want to look up. However, something causes an itch in her skin begging for her to do so. It is like a strange magnetic force, something beyond her knowledge, a strong gravitational pull. She fights back.

It doesn't last long because that woman…she…she

"Hello, my name is Meichi Yuri; it's a pleasure to finally meet you in person."

Yuri's tone seems to have many meanings in it, Nio couldn't decipher which are real and which are fake, but she did know, this woman, had said _hello_ to her with all the earnestly in the entire universe. She is the first person who didn't say to her that she is disgusting, a demon, a weirdo, trash, _no,_she said hello.

Nio's heart is paper-thin. She raises her head to rest on the backs of her hand.

She didn't expect what was in front of her.

An angel, a real angel, she had to be.

Meichi Yuri is the definition of beauty and grace. She has a slender face and hips and long brown hair. Her purplish-mahogany eyes are mellow and smooth. She appears powerful dressed in her black blazer; hot pink collared shirt, black slacks and polished shoes.

"Why are you…here?" Nio manages to speak.

"My, oh my, did no one tell you? I'm taking you under my wing as of today." Yuri smiled.

_So bright. I want to touch that brightness…_

"Y-you're adopting _me?_"

Nio blinks, baffled.

"I'd believe so, that's what it said on the hundred plus papers they made me sign." she joked.

_No way. This is a dream. Wake up, wake up!_

"Why?"

"Well, I've known about you for a while now and when I saw your picture, I guess…I saw myself in you. I knew that I wanted you by my side, so, will you come with me…?" Yuri extends her arm out to Nio.

"N-nio." Nio reaches for the hand, awe-struck.

"Nio-san, will you join me?"

Lightness explodes inside Nio, the sensation is surreal. Like a million fireworks going off inside of her, like a budding rose, a child finding their lost pet. Nio herself didn't know what it was consuming her, but it caused endless tears. These tears are different, they are feathers brushing away her fears, and they don't burn her skin.

"I-I will." A genuine smile breaks through.

A _happy_ smile.

Yuri reels Nio to her body, pulling the tearful girl into her arms. Yuri strokes the messy strands of hair on Nio's head.

Nio's mouth drops.

_This, what is she— is this what a hug is? I like it; I really, really like it. I don't want to let go…_

Yuri withdrew from the hug, a hand still resting on Nio's shoulder. With her free hand, she cups a cheek and wipes away the tears.

"Let's go home, okay?"


End file.
